I have a love for photographing people, for the Brand, for the Identity, for the Presence

12th February 20185th October 2018

The Style Guide

Over the summer I started working with Joy Gregory and her business The Style Guide, and was really excited to take on this new client.

Joy has a keen eye for all things fashion (something I’m not necessarily known for), but her philosophy struck a chord with some of my fundamental beliefs about photography; namely that everyone is beautiful, no matter what their own personal demons and insecurities are.

Her main mantra is that everyone can and should look good, and this is the thing she primarily focusses on. Mainly working with women, Joy’s there to help people feel good about themselves, by encouraging them to step out of their comfort zones when it comes to their wardrobe choices and loving the body they’re in.

Having been there herself, she knows how easy it is for you to become the afterthought in your own life; especially when you’re busy with work, family, small children and the myriad of other things that demand your time. Grabbing the first thing that fits and is clean is often the easy option when it comes to our own personal styles, but it doesn’t make us feel confident and good about ourselves. Having the right outfit can definitely put some swagger in your walk, and make you light up a room when you enter it.

Talking to Joy it’s clear that fashion, or more importantly empowerment through fashion choices, is her major passion. She talks to her clients about their body shape, colouring, skin tones and personal preferences to ensure they have a collection of outfits to suit any situation (and just as vitally, any budget).

For me, it was essential we arranged a shoot that would show off not only Joy’s personal style, but her personality and the fact she is a sassy, bad assy, strong, independent woman who is awesome and fun to be around and entirely approachable.

The only requirement was that it had to be shot in Sheffield city centre. Of course, that meant we were going to be somewhat at the mercy of the weather (never an easy thing in Yorkshire), but the thing I’ve learnt about photographers and stylists is we’re an adaptable bunch of people!

I quickly got to work scouting out some locations that I thought would work well, and plotted a route to make it easy for us to get from place to place (and allow for the occasional outfit change). The result was a stress free experience, with some great backdrops providing a real city living look.

Having everything pre-determined meant we could focus on simply capturing the right images for Joy’s business, brand and personality. Personally, I had so much fun working on this and I think the end results speak for themselves.